Thursday, January 27, 2011

Roach alongside some pretty yawls in 2007


Monday, January 10, 2011

Rowing Rosebud



Well no sailing on this trip but I did managed to get Rosebud out for a row. She is a very good rower as she tracks very well. Her deep V construction does not make her very stable, but the tracking when rowing such a wide beam dinghy is superb. As with all rowing it comes down to the oars – my old 5ft two-part Avon oars are not really up to proper rowing, but taken steady I rowed around 4km. Last year I noticed that the oars jumped from the locks a lot – making me catch a few crabs. So this year I brought out some totally round lock which seemed to do the job, although thicker oars or even collars would have helped. It is all good learning for the new dinghy build.

Monday, January 03, 2011

Dinghy build moving slowly forward









Well a quick update. This boat is expected to take 180 hours of work, but I have upped that to 200 hours, to give time for prepping, sourcing, and reading through and understanding the plans. I knocked 4 hours off today reading through the plans and hand cutting the transom from the plans (no power tools). This will be a very small dinghy indeed as you can see from my foot size. The transom will need another board on top – it was cut down in order to fit in my suitcase
I have decided to sell Rosebud, the dinghy I built last year (2009) as I it lives abroad, and I don’t really use it. So I will keep the Acorn sail, which is in great shape and make a plastic sail for Rosebud from light tarpaulin – around here people are used to improvisation and don’t really know the difference between sail material and plastic. Anyway tomorrow it is off to hand make 30 wedge clamps from the leftover ply I had from Rosebud construction. I have ordered the plywood from Robbins in the UK, and when I am back the first priority will be to make the building frame.
Tally
Time 195/200 hours.
Cost £200 plywood (Transom and sail were leftovers from previous build)